


Outmatched and Outnumbered

by misura



Category: Tales of the High Court - Megan Derr
Genre: Board Games, Domestic Fluff, Family Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 13:03:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17121881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: Sarrica plays a board game with his husband and his kids.





	Outmatched and Outnumbered

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Airheart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Airheart/gifts).



There was no other way to look at it: Sarrica's army was getting smashed, his soldiers getting slaughtered left and right under a brutal assault. He'd attempted to stave off the inevitable, buy himself a bit of time so that perhaps his allies might arrive and turn the tide, but it was hopeless.

_My allies, alas, turn out to be far too susceptible to a charming smile and the promise of sweets._

Not that Sarrica could blame them. At least, not when it came to giving in to Allen's smile. Besides, from a strategic point of view, it made sense that they would all gang up on him.

Sarrica was a soldier, after all. Or he had been, for a large part of his life, until he'd brought about peace and settled down to try and keep what he'd fought so hard for. Unlike anyone else in the room, he had battle experience, a keen grasp of tactics, a gift for leadership under pressure.

_Be honest, you thought this was going to be a walk in the park._ He'd promised himself at the beginning that he'd be nice, that he'd go easy on Allen. That he'd maybe nudge Bellen into a temporal alliance to keep things interesting.

"You know, you could always surrender," Allen said, cheerfully putting down another tower.

"No." Sarrica's position might be hopeless, but he refused to simply give up. "Thank you."

"You wouldn't need to get back to work right away."

True, Sarrica had promised his secretaries that he'd get some paperwork done right after the game. Still, there were still three players left, which meant the game was far from over yet.

"You should try and get Nyla's tower out of the way here," Sarren told Bellen, knowing better than to try and convince Allen. "With that gone, you'd be able to take all of this terrain right here."

Allen rolled his eyes. Sarrica grinned at him. He loved the way Allen had opened up around not only Sarrica but Bellen and Nyla as well.

"Allen promised to buy me sweets if I wouldn't do that," Bellen said. She sounded very solemn.

Sarrica briefly considered offering a bribe of his own, then decided it was beneath him. "A good leader doesn't base his actions on bribes. You should do what's best for your people."

Now _Bellen_ rolled her eyes, in a perfect imitation of Allen. "It's only a game, papa. You shouldn't take it so seriously. Would you like to play Herding Geese next?"

Only last week, Sarrica had been informed that Herding Geese was a game for babies. Of course, the week before _that_ , he'd expressed the opinion that Herding Geese was his absolute favorite game, to enthusiastic and unanimous agreement.

"If you're going to make us play Herding Geese, I'm going to take this tower of yours right here," Nyla said, moving his game pieces accordingly. By a stroke of good fortune, the move also offered some of Sarrica's game pieces a chance to escape utter annihilation.

Sarrica tried to look smug, as if he had planned for this exact thing to happen. Bellen and Nyla were too intent on the game to notice and Allen, alas, knew him too well to buy it.

"I'm still going to get sweets, right?" Bellen asked, pulling back her pieces to deal with Nyla's attack. It left her vulnerable to Allen, but then, out of all of them, Allen was the worst player of Towers. He never broke his promises, or turned on his allies when doing so would be to his clear advantage.

Sarrica suspected that Allen simply enjoyed playing the game more than he enjoyed winning. Which was fair enough. Sarrica knew he was competitive himself, even if he did try to keep things fun.

"Of course," Allen said, arranging his pieces in a defensive position. It would make attacking him a bad idea, but then, nobody seemed interested in Allen's territory anyway. "And so is Nyla."

"Ha!" said Nyla, moving to take one of Bellen's towers.

"That doesn't sound fair," Bellen said, frowning. "He betrayed us. Traitors don't deserve sweets."

"It's only a game, ringlet," Sarrica said. "You shouldn't take it so seriously."

Allen's lips curved. Sarrica would have enjoyed seeing a full grin, but he still cherished this small victory.

Bellen stuck out her tongue.

Sarrica decided that secretaries or not, they were _definitely_ going to play Herding Geese after this.


End file.
